Emerging Disruptive Technologies and its Possible Implications for Defence Policies

On 14 October I participated in an event organized by South Koreas National Defence University. For the conference, I had submitted a paper on Emerging Disruptive Technologies and its possible implications for defence policies. I discussed these technologies from an European perspective using the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden and the European Union as references.

In my conclusions I argued that combined these technologies may result in a revolution in military thinking and that nations need to adopt its defence policies in several areas. Defence of critical infrastructure may be as important as defence of territory, new procurement methods need to be introduced, closer and more seamless cooperation between academia, private business and Governments should be fostered, new technologies will raise difficult moral, ethical and legal questions and it will challenge existing confidence building and arms control regimes. Moreover, it will call for introducing some form of “Total Defence Concept” and challenge traditional views on how we organize, train and man military organizations.

My paper will be included in an edited volume produced by the NDU.

Mats